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A History of the World in 10 Dinners: 2,000 Years, 100 Recipes
For every lover of food culture, this scrupulously researched and accessible cookbook presents one-of-a-kind dinner parties inspired by seminal moments in culinary history.
In ten chapters—each an important moment in food history, from Ancient Rome to Al-Andalus in Spain, from the Ethiopian Empire to nineteenth-century New York City—the authors pair menus with immersive retellings of historic culinary breakthroughs, and present the ingredients and modern techniques adapted for today’s kitchens to allow cooks of all abilities to entertain with dishes that were created and enjoyed hundreds of years ago but remain relevant to today’s food tastes and values.
Readers learn to orchestrate feasts from Apicus , blend spices from the Silk Road, feature indigenous ingredients of the Americas, revisit the “classics” from the Court of the Sun King, and savor the complex delicacies from the birth of the American restaurant scene. The home cook can prepare an entire seven-course Tudor feast, for example, or pick and choose dishes from around the world throughout time. Rich illustrations, hand-drawn maps, and contemporary photography create an immersive experience, while Harris’s foreword puts these historic foodways and their legacies into contemporary context.
In ten chapters—each an important moment in food history, from Ancient Rome to Al-Andalus in Spain, from the Ethiopian Empire to nineteenth-century New York City—the authors pair menus with immersive retellings of historic culinary breakthroughs, and present the ingredients and modern techniques adapted for today’s kitchens to allow cooks of all abilities to entertain with dishes that were created and enjoyed hundreds of years ago but remain relevant to today’s food tastes and values.
Readers learn to orchestrate feasts from Apicus , blend spices from the Silk Road, feature indigenous ingredients of the Americas, revisit the “classics” from the Court of the Sun King, and savor the complex delicacies from the birth of the American restaurant scene. The home cook can prepare an entire seven-course Tudor feast, for example, or pick and choose dishes from around the world throughout time. Rich illustrations, hand-drawn maps, and contemporary photography create an immersive experience, while Harris’s foreword puts these historic foodways and their legacies into contemporary context.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published September 19, 2023
6 people are currently reading
309 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 27, 2025
A fabulous cookbook with recipes from around the world through history. Beautifully illustrated with lush colour photographs, although I can't help complain that not every recipe is illustrated, including some rather difficult-to-imagine-how-the-hell-that-looks recipes. The recipes are connected with bits of history, which are sometimes interesting, but often rather thin. Historical eras I am familiar with felt very elementary and obvious, but the sketches of eras and places I am not very familiar with - such as Ethiopia - offered an engaging introduction. I would have loved to know more about the recipe sources. I have already tried a handful of dishes, some successes and others... well, not quite failures, but oddities. Some ingredients have proven all but impossible to find; I have ordered verjus from a local winery, but sourcing the caul fat necessary for several of the dishes in this book has so far introduced me to many of my area's butchers, but has not yet resulted in finding the ingredient. Ah well, it's all part of the experience, I guess.
December 8, 2024
Spectacular. The amount of research it takes to tell a history like this is breathtaking. Each chapter is a multitude of facts and histories; yet these are seemingly woven together so naturally that they are (pun intended) very easy to digest.
I particularly loved some of the chapters because I had no prior knowledge of an area I.e. Ethiopia.
I found it very enjoyable the way this History of The World diverges from the traditional canon in several aspects and articulates so well recent realisations in social history.
I can’t wait to see what comes next from these guys.
I particularly loved some of the chapters because I had no prior knowledge of an area I.e. Ethiopia.
I found it very enjoyable the way this History of The World diverges from the traditional canon in several aspects and articulates so well recent realisations in social history.
I can’t wait to see what comes next from these guys.
January 1, 2024
A lovely physical book. There is a surprising amount of actual world history here. The recipes are interesting to read, I don't know how many of them would be practical to try, (unless you are a very intrepid cook) since there are so many strange ingredients.
July 17, 2025
An excellent book! Great recipes and very excellent historical context writing. Loved it!
June 11, 2025
95%
The most fascinating cookbook I've ever read - and yes, I actually read a lot of it versus just looking at the meal titles and pictures and going "yum!". In fact, most of these recipes did not have me salivating, but rather contorting my face with disgust. Man, I sure do feel lucky to be eating the food I eat today; some of the recipes are just balls to the wall insane, and I am so very impressed that the authors took the time to not only thoroughly research these foods but to actually cook and present them in a way that's almost appetizing.
Speaking of research, this is the most informational cookbook I've ever read, and I learned so so much about ancient history, and how and why they ate the foods they ate. This book added a level of context to history that I never really though too much about, and yet it seems so integral to the functions of the time. I think a lot of people dismiss history as being complex and/or irrelevant, and when you're looking just at dates and events, I can see why society feels so far removed from the comprehensive human past.
This book adds humanity to history; it reminds you these aren't just random facts and sentences that happened "once upon a time", but that real people lived through them - and food is so much a part of life, not only for the pleasure of eating but for the livelihoods we build around it. I mean, I pretty much give 40 hours a week of my life for the ability to buy myself nourishment. I'm lucky enough to live in a world where I can do that, because 400 years ago, I would've been spending that time growing and tending to the ingredients that make that food - and it wouldn't even be particularly GOOD food! Basically, until global trade routes were established and food preservation technology was advanced, everyone's food was kind of a little bit shit.
The most fascinating cookbook I've ever read - and yes, I actually read a lot of it versus just looking at the meal titles and pictures and going "yum!". In fact, most of these recipes did not have me salivating, but rather contorting my face with disgust. Man, I sure do feel lucky to be eating the food I eat today; some of the recipes are just balls to the wall insane, and I am so very impressed that the authors took the time to not only thoroughly research these foods but to actually cook and present them in a way that's almost appetizing.
Speaking of research, this is the most informational cookbook I've ever read, and I learned so so much about ancient history, and how and why they ate the foods they ate. This book added a level of context to history that I never really though too much about, and yet it seems so integral to the functions of the time. I think a lot of people dismiss history as being complex and/or irrelevant, and when you're looking just at dates and events, I can see why society feels so far removed from the comprehensive human past.
This book adds humanity to history; it reminds you these aren't just random facts and sentences that happened "once upon a time", but that real people lived through them - and food is so much a part of life, not only for the pleasure of eating but for the livelihoods we build around it. I mean, I pretty much give 40 hours a week of my life for the ability to buy myself nourishment. I'm lucky enough to live in a world where I can do that, because 400 years ago, I would've been spending that time growing and tending to the ingredients that make that food - and it wouldn't even be particularly GOOD food! Basically, until global trade routes were established and food preservation technology was advanced, everyone's food was kind of a little bit shit.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews